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28-399: [REDACTED] The Blair–Brown deal (or Granita Pact ) was a gentlemen's agreement struck between the British Labour Party politicians Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in 1994, while they were Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively. It is widely believed that the two had a meeting in 1994 at the restaurant Granita in Islington , London , following

56-454: A Labour Government. In October 2003, columnist Tom Brown told the BBC that Brown had informed him of the deal the day after it had been made. Tom Brown said to BBC Radio Scotland : I'm in absolutely no doubt there was a deal since Gordon phoned me the morning after it was made and told me about it. But at the same time I also believe that both men left the restaurant with a different version of

84-707: A corresponding informal Ladies' Agreement between the United States and Japan, whereby Japan made sure there was very little or no movement to the US. The agreements were made by US Secretary of State Elihu Root and Japan's Foreign Minister, Tadasu Hayashi . The agreement banned emigration of Japanese laborers to the United States and rescinded the segregation order of the San Francisco School Board in California , which had humiliated and angered

112-465: A government wants to enter into a secret agreement that is not binding upon the next administration. According to another author, all international agreements are gentlemen's agreements because, short of war, they are all unenforceable. Osmańczyk pointed out that there is a difference between open gentlemen's agreements and secret diplomatic agreements. In the United States, a prohibition against gentlemen's agreements in commercial relations between states

140-536: A later point, but that the two men later fought bitterly after – from Brown's perspective – Blair failed to keep to his end of the bargain. Brown also stated that the deal had not been made in Granita but had been struck before the men met in the restaurant. In his 2017 book My Life, Our Times , Brown again described the Granita dinner as "a formality" that merely confirmed what the two had previously discussed and agreed. In her autobiography, Cherie Blair writes that

168-480: A limit of 300 km/h (186 mph) in late 1999. See List of fastest production motorcycles . After intense anti-Japanese sentiment developed on the West Coast, US President Theodore Roosevelt did not want to anger Japan by supporting legislation to bar Japanese immigration to the United States, as had been done for Chinese immigration. Instead, there was an informal "Gentlemen's Agreement" (1907–8) and

196-456: A total implosion of the banking system". The paper praised Brown, saying he was "Miles ahead of anyone you can name currently in office at Westminster. Brown thinks, and thinks profoundly. And by and large, over the last 30 years, what he has thought has turned out to be correct." He went on to say the memoir was "thrilling" and "unexpectedly moving". The Financial Times summarised the book by saying "the former Labour Prime Minister resisted

224-650: Is a memoir by the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Chancellor of the Exchequer , Gordon Brown . It was published on 7 November 2017 by The Bodley Head , a subdivision of Random House . The book follows the stages in Brown's personal and political life, from his upbringing in Scotland to his tenures as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister , with his own behind-the-scenes account of

252-581: The House of Lords held that the phrase, "This arrangement is not ... a formal or legal agreement ... but is only a record of the intention of the parties" was sufficient to rebut the said presumption. Gentlemen's agreements were a widely used discriminatory tactic reportedly more common than restrictive covenants in preserving the homogeneity of upper-class neighborhoods and suburbs in the United States. The nature of these agreements made them extremely difficult to prove or to track, and were effective long after

280-399: The global financial crisis . Brown's much-anticipated memoir was published on 7 November 2017. In a Waterstones interview a few days after its launch, journalist Robert Peston put forward the idea that Gordon Brown was in many ways an underrated politician and an underrated Chancellor. Brown was subsequently approached by Waterstones and interviewed, where he explained how he had chosen

308-400: The "pool" and the "gentleman's agreement." The latter type lacked any formal organization to regulate output or prices or any provisions for forfeiture in the event of an infraction. The efficacy of the agreement relied on members to keep informal pledges. In the automotive industry, Japanese manufacturers agreed that no production car would have more than 276 bhp (206 kW; 280  PS );

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336-640: The American steel and iron industries of the early 20th century. A report from the United States House of Representatives detailing their investigation of the United States Steel Corporation asserted that there were two general types of loose associations or consolidations between steel and iron interests in the 1890s in which the individual concerns retained ownership as well as a large degree of independence:

364-695: The Japanese. The agreement did not apply to the Territory of Hawaii . The agreements remained effective until 1924, when Congress forbade all immigration from Japan. Similar anti-Japanese sentiment in Canada at the same time led to the Hayashi-Lemieux Agreement, also referred to as the "Gentlemen's Agreement of 1908", with substantially similar clauses and effects. Gentlemen's agreements have come to regulate international activities such as

392-546: The Massachusetts public records in 1835. The Oxford English Dictionary cites P. G. Wodehouse 's 1929 story collection Mr Mulliner Speaking as the first appearance of the term. A gentleman's agreement, defined in the early 20th century as "an agreement between gentlemen looking toward the control of prices," was reported by one source to be the loosest form of a " pool ." Such agreements have been reported to be found in every type of industry and were numerous in

420-644: The United States Supreme Court's rulings in Shelley v. Kraemer and Barrows v. Jackson . A 1995 source stated that gentlemen's agreements "undoubtedly still exist", but that their use had greatly diminished. Until Jackie Robinson was hired by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946, a gentlemen's agreement ensured that African American players were excluded from organized baseball . My Life, Our Times My Life, Our Times

448-534: The agreement ended in 2005. German manufacturers limit the top speed of high-performance saloons (sedans) and station wagons to 250 kilometres per hour (155 mph). However some automakers such as Mercedes-Benz offer options to increase or remove the speed limiter. When the Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle exceeded 310 km/h (190 mph) in 1999, fears of a European ban or regulatory crackdown led Japanese and European motorcycle makers to agree to

476-549: The coordination of monetary or trade policies . According to Edmund Osmańczyk in the Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements , it is also defined as "an international term for an agreement made orally rather than in writing, yet fully legally valid". This type of agreement may allow a nation to avoid the domestic legal requirements to enter into a formal treaty , or it may be useful when

504-515: The deal in their minds. They hadn't actually written it down on paper. Gordon believed Blair would step down about now actually, and Blair believed that he... hadn't committed himself to any timetable. An episode of Dispatches in May 2007, entitled "Gordon Brown: Fit For Office?" reported that Brown felt betrayed after losing support from Peter Mandelson and other friends and that this lack of support, rather than any deal, made him decide not to run for

532-543: The deal took place at a neighbour's home, not at Granita. In an interview with Peter Hennessy on BBC Radio 4, Tony Blair claimed that the agreement had been struck '...in a couple of different places in Edinburgh', claiming that by the time they dined at Granita, minds had been made up as to what was going to happen. Gentlemen%27s agreement The phrase appears in the British parliamentary records in 1821 and in

560-612: The leadership. An account of the pact between the two politicians was presented in detail in the book of 2001, The Rivals: The Intimate Story of a Political Marriage , written by BBC journalist James Naughtie . The relationship between Blair and Brown from the years 1983 to 1994 – culminating in an in depth dramatisation of the Granita meeting – was the focus of a 2003 made-for-television film directed by Stephen Frears and written by Peter Morgan , based in part upon Naughtie's book. The film, titled The Deal , starred Michael Sheen as Blair and David Morrissey as Brown. A caption in

588-558: The most powerful Chancellor in British history. It is also widely believed that Blair agreed, if he were appointed Prime Minister , to stay in the job for only two terms and then resign in Brown's favour. Blair later led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election , and Brown became Chancellor with wider powers and the "formidable autonomy" as promised to him. In 2007, as Blair had allegedly predicted, Brown became Blair's successor following Blair's resignation, though he served three terms instead of two. The existence of any deal

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616-572: The opening titles (directly inspired – according to Frears – by the identical epigraph at the start of the film of 1969, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ) informed viewers that "much of what follows is true". In a televised interview with Piers Morgan in February 2010, Brown admitted that he deferred contesting the Labour leadership and that Blair had promised to hand over power to him at

644-441: The right time to write his memoir; "I think this is the right time, seven years on, to explain what you've been doing, how you saw the events at the time, what lessons you learnt and how the past shapes our future." Revelations in the post-release interview included Brown's admiration for Nelson Mandela 's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom , and his initial career plan to become a footballer rather than an MP. My Life, Our Time

672-509: The unexpected death of John Smith , the then- Leader of the Labour Party , on 12 May of that year. They agreed that Brown would not stand in the forthcoming Labour leadership election , so as to allow Blair a better chance of easy victory, and in return Blair would appoint Brown Chancellor of the Exchequer upon Labour's presumptive victory. In government Brown would be granted unprecedented powers over domestic policy, which would make him

700-480: The usual pressures to produce an instant memoir. To the frustration of the casual reader (and perhaps the publisher) he resists the temptation to engage in much gossip either. What Brown does provide is some score-settling, more self-criticism than one might expect, and a sense of deep frustration that his long wait to become prime minister ended with him struggling to cope with the job and seeing his economic legacy come crashing down." Labour MP Peter Mandelson reviewed

728-534: Was denied for many years by both men. The existence of the deal was publicly dismissed by Blair, Brown and many of their associates for several years, prompting much speculation as to what, if anything, was agreed. The Guardian published a written note in June 2003 which, it said, outlined the policy areas proposed by Brown that Blair would commit to as part of the deal, namely a "fairness agenda" consisting of "social justice, employment opportunities and skills" under

756-467: Was introduced in 1890, because the secretive nature of such agreements was beyond anyone's control. In English contract law , for an agreement to be binding, there must be an intention to create legal relations ; but in commercial dealings (i.e. agreements that are not between family members or friends) there is a legal presumption of an "intention to create legal relations". However, in the 1925 case of Rose & Frank Co v JR Crompton & Bros Ltd ,

784-587: Was reprinted by Vintage Books on 24 May 2018. On 3 June, Brown attended an event at Cardiff City Stadium to discuss the book, with Labour MP Kevin Brennan . My Life, Our Times received mixed reviews from critics. Writing in The Guardian , political journalist and specialist on New Labour , Andrew Rawnsley , noted the memoir's most riveting moments concerned the financial crash; "the most valuable chapters here are those that describe how they averted

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